Tim Tramnitz: My Ultimate Driver

Tim Tramnitz return for a second season in FIA Formula 3 has been confirmed and as he prepares to get going once again in 2025, we had him build out his Ultimate Racing driver.
The MP Motorsport returnee picks out a few traits from some of the greatest Formula 1 drivers of all time both past and present and some of the moments that caught his eye.
INTELLIGENCE
“Lewis Hamilton. I think the way he approaches all his races is always really smart. He is never doing anything stupid, always smart in his approach and not really making mistakes. Also, when battling he is clever and he does not take too many risks when he doesn’t have too.”
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DRIVING IN THE WET
“Max Verstappen. I always refer to 2016 in Brazil, it was super impressive and always in the wet and every condition, he is able to adapt so quickly so he is the best for sure.”
QUALIFYING
“I would go for Max again. He is just incredibly quick. I think Monaco last year was just impressive, how close he was to the wall you could have not fit a piece of paper, it was super impressive.”
CORNERING
“Let’s go with Sebastian Vettel. I think he was always very consistent, very clean, never really making mistakes, especially in the Red Bull time throughout the whole race. He is also able to motivate a team around him so he was really good.”
TYRE MANAGEMENT
“That’s a tough one. Let’s go with Fernando Alonso. I think what I always think of is Brazil in 2023. He was a bit on the back foot, at least it looked like he was in the back foot, but then he was able to extract a little bit more out of the tyre late in the race and that’s how he got on the podium.
“To really get out everything of the tyre towards the end when you are under pressure, it’s really impressive. Of course, he has a lot of experience and he uses that, so I still think that’s really good.”
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BRAVERY/RISK TAKING
“I could almost go on every point with Max because I think he is really impressive, so let’s go with him again. I think it is just so impressive how he developed throughout the year.
“If you look back at the beginning of his career sometimes, he was taking a bit too many risks and there would be contact but he changed completely from the beginning. Now, he is a very smart racer and just doing hard overtakes and hard fights without any consequences, so he is really quick.”
SMOOTH OR AGGRESSIVE
“I would say Lewis Hamilton is the smoothest. When you look at his onboards from 2019, 2020, you don’t see a single correction on the steering wheel. Everything was so clean, he and the car seemed to work well together so I’d choose him.”
OVERTAKING
“Let’s go with someone different, someone who is always taking risks and doing nice overtakes, especially in his rookie year, it’s Yuki Tsunoda. I feel like we have seen some really impressive moves from him over the last few years.
“It doesn’t get recognised so much but I think when I remember some replays during the race, he is always making some really impressive overtakes, like in Abu Dhabi in 2021, how far he came back on Bottas was insane.”
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ANYTHING ELSE?
“I would just add Michael Schumacher. Just because I think he is one of the most complete drivers. His attitude towards the sport was super impressive, he was one of the drivers that started to make the sport much more popular in terms of fitness and things like that. On a list like this, he can’t not be in it, so I would put him here also.”